Fanfare
by Hakuei's Cooking
Summary: Kouen asks Hakuei for her help to befriend Aladdin. Mostly centered on Kouen and Hakuei and takes place after the Magnostadt arc.


**Disclaimer: Magi is the property of Shinobu Ohtaka and Shogakukan.**

**Fanfare**

Kouen was sitting in his personal reading area in the archives, holding a writing brush in his hand that he rested his chin on. Afternoon light that filtered through the windows cast a warm, golden glow on the stone floor and mahogany bookcases with songbirds occasionally tweeting and picking at the glass panes. Instead of strategy books and historical scrolls, children storybooks and guides on child rearing were towering on his left and right with bookmarks stuck into them. The piece of paper that was sprawled before him on the desk was neither a map nor a letter addressed to a governor or an official, but a list of toys, games, confectioneries and pet animals that he had extracted from them.

"Hakuei, what Hakuryuu was into when he was a kid?" with his eyes pinned on the list and a finger tapping on the desk, he asked his cousin sitting across from him. Her hands were busy knitting a stomach warmer with what looked like the upper half of the Chinese character for flame, which indicated she was half-way done.

"Well, he was chasing after my brothers all the time and tried to match up to them in everything they did. All the toys my mother bought for him were collecting dust." The smile on her face then turned upside down as she reached for the knitting basket to attach a new yarn to the needles. "After the incident, he became obsessed with training..."

As she trailed off, Kouen regretted bringing up Hakuryuu who she had been on bad terms with before he disappeared for months, and a gloomy air hung over them.

"What were you into when you were a child, general Kouen?" Hakuei flashed him a smile, attempting to lighten up the mood. Kouen was six years her senior, and the first time she had met him when she was a preteen he was already a young man who was approaching adulthood.

"My interests weren't what you'd call normal," Kouen felt a little awkward as he talked about himself, something he found he mostly did around her. "I became interested in books and martial arts at an early age. On my way back home after training, I'd stop by the library in town to borrow books and stay up late reading them."

Back then, he was living with his parents and Koumei in one of the back buildings in the palace and grew up watching his mother suffer through his father's womanizing. It was not until his mid-teens that his battle skills had been recognized and he began serving at the royal court. There he met his cousins, his uncle that he had as role-model in place of his father and Judar, who had suggested he go to that otherworldly edifice he had dubbed a 'dungeon'.

"I still remember the look on your face when I showed you this room for the first time," Hakuei chuckled, reminiscing. "You looked like a child who was given a new toy as you browsed the bookshelves."

With his mouth curving into a smile, he recalled that time she had caught him reading a scroll he was due to return that day in his respite. It was followed by her guiding him by his hand through the palace corridors and into the room they were in right now. The materials that had caught his eyes were all rare and foreign books that could not be found in the town's library, and thanks to her talking the head scholar into keep it a secret, he had managed to take them home with him.

"And what were you into when you were a little girl, princess?" Kouen inquired, giving her his full attention as he put his brush down. "I find it rather fascinating that you fight wars at day and cook and do needlework at night."

"My interest in strategy and battle was probably the result of growing up among men." She kept out the tidbit of her desperation to get stronger for Hakuryuu after their father and brothers were gone, not wanting to ruin the mood between them again. "My mother was always elegant and beautiful and quite skilled at cooking and sewing. I helped her knit for my father and brothers when winter was approaching and grew up admiring her embroidery when our family gathered together in the evening."

Maybe back then, she also wanted a life like that of her mother: to be married to a handsome man who would cherish her and be surrounded by beautiful children who filled the house with laughter. Just a little while before the incident around the time Hakuyuu's enthronement had been decided, there had been talks between her father and uncle about her betrothal to Kouen.

Hakuei had lived all of her childhood in the capital and came to know a few boys. In contrast, Kouen had seen the outside world and probably came across a lot of girls. Though he had voiced no objection to it, and he was in no position to, she wondered how he felt about it back then. She wondered how he would have felt about her had she become his wife. After their engagement was broken off after her father had died and they became stepbrother and sister, concubines were sent to his room every night to mate with them as his duty as the crown prince to leave behind descendants.

Even after she had become a general, seen the outside world and met more men, Kouen was still and will always be the only man she longed for. The thought of his feelings for her being nothing more than platonic and the thought of another woman being loved by him and bearing his children almost killed her.

"How about a new staff, then?" Hakuei changed the subject.

"Ah, right, he's a magi; we can arrange for a custom-made one like Judar's," Kouen concurred. "Kouha also mentioned that Aladdin went to that school in Magnostadt that only prodigies can be admitted to; he might like a few spell books. I'll consult the magicians and have the best ones we have duplicated... Is something wrong?"

Kouen inquired worriedly as Hakuei stopped her knitting to gaze at him, the smile on her face tinged with sadness.

"No," Hakuei shook her head. "It's just all this talk made me wonder what you would be like as a father. I know you'll be strict with your sons and will inspire them to follow in your footsteps, but how would you be like around a daughter? The look on your face when you hold her in your arms after she's born, what will you do to quiet her down when she cries, how protective you'll become of her when she becomes a young woman and falls in love..."

She trailed off with a tear streaming down her cheek as she thought it could be another woman or women who raised those children with him.

Kouen got off his seat, walked over his desk and knelt before her in the same way he used to when she was his princess and he her loyal servant. He took her hand in his, unsure whether she was lamenting what she was missing on as a woman or because he had kept her waiting for so long. "Sorry. Whenever talks about marrying the princesses off came up, you were the first to come to mind and I was the one against it." He averted his eyes as guilt nipped at him."If it weren't for me, you wouldv'e already been the mother of a child or two and won't have borne those scars."

Even though they could not be together back when his father was alive, he could not bring himself to let her go. He could not stomach the thought of her being another man's woman, of her bearing another man's children, of another man sampling her awful cooking. Kouen was not the type to wish death upon his father, no matter how ashamed he was of him, but he always held onto the hope that once he had become emperor, she will be his.

Hakuei smiled, beside herself as she registered his feelings that he was trying to convey to her. "I've already made up my mind to live as a warrior." She wiped her tears with her sleeve. "Ever since I've become of age, I was afraid I'll be used as a political tool and have my life controlled by a chauvinistic man. I want to fight by your side, general Kouen, and have your dream realized. No one else can rid this world of misfortune."

He lowered his head reverently and brought her hands to his lips, her hands that had become hardened from fighting for his ideals. He then got up and brought her to her feet, one hand on her shoulder while the other grasped her chin. "Aladdin would've been happy to see you, well, more than he would me. Now that Kougyoku was appointed general, how about I assign her to Tenzan and take you with me instead?"

"That won't be a good idea." Her cheeks flushed, understanding that more than wanting her help around Aladdin, he wanted her by his side. "Not that I'm doubting Kougyoku or Kouha's ability, but the Tenzan plateau has always been my specialty and my household work best under me."

"Then I leave them all in your care," he gave in, imprinting a kiss on her forehead.

Once he gets Aladdin and that Balbadd brat on his side, he will declare war on Sinbad and the Seven Seas Alliance. Once they were out of the way, all that was left was Parthevia that still drowned in its past glories and then, he will rule over the world as its one and only king with Hakuei at his side.


End file.
